In May of 2000, Lycos was acquired by Terra Networks, the internet arm of Spanish telecom giant Telefónica for $5.4 billion. Do you remember how this company used to be one of the top sites online? It really was one of the symbols of the dotcom bubble. Although you never hear Lycos mentioned anymore it is interesting to note the company has an Alexa ranking of 1,443 meaning it is in the top 1,443 most popular sites.

Moreover the company says it consistently averages 12 - 15 million monthly unique visitors in the U.S. and moreover that it reaches nearly 60 million unique visitors globally.

So what do people do on Lycos? Here is the surprise. You may have imagined it is a search play but no. Many visitors, 35% in fact visit the company's Tripod area which is dedicated to webhosting. Mail users account for just over 25% and search users account for 18% of traffic. Angelfire at 4.5% is also a webhosting destination.

The news isn't really earth-shattering but it just reminds you of how sky-high web valuations didn't pan out for the majority of sites but a few like Google, Priceline and Amazon actually exceeded the expectations of many.

In May of 2000, Lycos was acquired by Terra Networks, the internet arm of Spanish telecom giant Telefónica for \$5.4 billion. Do you remember how this company used to be one of the top sites online? It really was one of the symbols of the dotcom bubble. Although you never hear Lycos mentioned anymore it is interesting to note the company has an Alexa ranking of 1,443 meaning it is in the top 1,443 most popular sites.

Moreover the company says it consistently averages 12 - 15 million monthly unique visitors in the U.S. and moreover that it reaches nearly 60 million unique visitors globally.

So what do people do on Lycos? Here is the surprise. You may have imagined it is a search play but no. Many visitors, 35% in fact visit the company's Tripod area which is dedicated to webhosting. Mail users account for just over 25% and search users account for 18% of traffic. Angelfire at 4.5% is also a webhosting destination.

The news isn't really earth-shattering but it just reminds you of how sky-high web valuations didn't pan out for the majority of sites but a few like Google, Priceline and Amazon actually exceeded the expectations of many.